Bio – Demon – Macabre Unit

First cutting his teeth in the grime scene as a founding member of one of the UK’s most-lauded crews, Macabre Unit – the collective responsible for classic cuts such as ‘Take Time’ and ‘Dem Na Ready Yet’ – Demon, Raff Di Renzo to his Mum, is of a rare breed of producer/DJs who continue to find themselves at the vanguard of the UK underground: from legendary Sidewinder tape-pack sets, to gracing the Radio 1Xtra airwaves long before it became the entertainment behemoth that it is today, there has always the sense with Demon that he isn’t waiting around for people to catch on. This is evident in the humble way in which he looks back on his days in the grime scene, reflecting that he hadn’t realised ‘how big we were until it all blew over.’ And whilst this might indicate a certain youthful naivety – Demon and his fellow Unit members were only just into their twenties around the time of their successes in grime – it is arguably better understood as emblematic of the incredible focus that even casual observers find to be characteristic of Raff himself.

Moving on from grime, after ‘life took over’ and the direct Unit collective all but disintegrated, Demon’s attentions turned to another offshoot of early-noughties dark garage. Far from what was by that time being peddled to mainstream radio listeners as dubstep, however, what was coming from Demon’s studio was much closer to the sounds that had moved in the small dark rooms of the now-world-straddling genre’s early years. This, in his own words, was about reminding people ‘where it’s really at’. And this, focussed as ever, driving forward a new resurgence of interest in that original, deeper sound, is exactly what he achieved. Whether it be the hours put in the studio, both as a solo artist and keen collaborator, coaxing out twisted synths and wrapping them up in tight percussion, or in DJ booths across the UK, Europe and North America; the passion of the Milton Keynes-based producer cannot be faulted as he dedicates every spare moment possible to the music he loves.

It’s almost inevitable, then, that this passion be extended to releasing music and the Unit - and the sense of a team or crew that was so instrumental in the proliferation of grime in its early days - is something that remains today as Demon carefully selects and mentors new producers to release on his labels Macabre Unit Digital and Macabre Unit Vinyl. Just shy of two years old, both the M.U.D and M.UV imprints have already established themselves as buy-on-sight labels for discerning dubstep heads, earning nominations for Best New Label and Best Label in the 2011 and 2012 Dubstepforum Awards respectively and effectively furthering the crew or ‘family’ aspect of the Unit as it grows to include a passionate and dedicated fanbase who consistently push each release to the top of the sales charts.